Jennie Geisler: God save the scones and other British fare

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Wednesday

May 16, 2018 at 10:54 AMMay 16, 2018 at 10:54 AM

Well, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s a certain couple getting married in England this weekend. Something to do with the sixth in line to the throne, I hear, so there will be much pomp and circumstance and hats and tassels and such.

I thought I’d whip up some British fare as a tip of my figurative cap (I don’t wear hats except in winter) to our friends across the pond. I happened upon a list of ingredients Nigella Lawson said she couldn’t live without. She’s a celebrity food writer from England. I decided to try to find a few of those and cook with them.

Lawson also mentioned Lyle’s Golden Syrup, the British answer to corn syrup that tastes more like caramel; Gentleman’s Relish, a spiced anchovy spread; some produce I knew I’d never find; Farrington’s Mellow Yellow Cold-Pressed Rapeseed Oil; Marmite (yeast extract), a glossy black-brown salty spread or to add to a sauce or stew for umami flavor. I’m considering purchasing a few of these to have in my own pantry.

A lot of them were available on good old reliable Amazon, including the Maldon sea salt, which I bought for the fish, as well as the strawberry preserves, which I bought for the scones.

Five things I learned:1. You want to talk about royalty? I royally screwed up the potato recipe. I found it on the Maldon Salt Co.’s website and it looked easy enough, but I just looked at the picture and didn’t read it carefully enough to know what I was really getting into. First of all, had I made it to the letter, I would have needed a KILOGRAM of specialty smoked salt. Which means I would have had to purchase a 1.5-kilogram bucket of the stuff. For those of you scoring at home, that’s $42 worth of salt — for a potato side dish using exactly 1 pound of potatoes, which might have served four people.

Part of the problem was that I’m not used to thinking in weight, such as grams and ounces. I’m used to thinking in volume, like cups and teaspoons, so I glazed right over that number, thinking whatever “750g - 1kg” of salt was, my unopened (8.5-ounce) box of Maldon sea salt would be more than enough to season a few potatoes. I didn’t realize I was making a recipe that would create a salt crust around the potatoes as they cooked. Which is probably delicious, now that I think about it, but I’m not authorized to make $50 potato dishes.

2. After this discovery, I bumbled forward, deciding, after I recognized my woefully inadequate purchase of Maldon smoked sea salt, to use my fresh box of kosher salt and cook them on a jelly roll pan, which has a roughly 1-inch rim around it. I covered the bottom of the pan with the salt, put the potatoes on top of the salt, poured more salt over top and started to realize that I wouldn’t have enough depth to bury the potatoes in the salt. So I quit pouring salt over them and decided to just pour the water on and cook these suckers.

I only spilled a third of the water trying to get the pan into the oven, which at this point, I decided to consider a modicum of success.

3. The next thing I realized I did wrong was buy regular baking potatoes instead of small ones. I thought I could just cut them up to the desired size. Well, the recipe would later instruct me to “rub off the salt crust thoroughly using a cloth.” Have you ever tried to rub anything off the cut side of a cooked potato? Yes. It was an ineffectual mess. The potatoes were tragically overly salty to the point that they were inedible. I had to rinse them off with water before I could add the butter.

If I were you, I would completely ignore the Roasted Potatoes recipe I included here, buy a one-pound bag of small potatoes and microwave them with half a stick of butter and a handful of fresh rosemary. Sprinkle them with a small handful of Maldon Sea Salt flakes and move on with life.

4. The other two recipes were fairly straightforward. The fish was delicious with the last finishing dash of those sea salt flakes. I highly recommend securing yourself a box of that stuff and using it as a finisher on any savory dish. It adds an occasional crunch and burst of delightful salt taste while you’re eating that could definitely help you cut down on the other salting you’re doing along the way. Don’t use it on everything. Just stuff you want to have an extra something-something, like a good steak, a grilled chicken thigh or broiled salmon, maybe a mixed greens salad.

5. The scones recipe called for “self-rising flour.” I am the owner of so many kinds of flour I could open a bakery and didn’t feel like buying another kind, so I made my own. It’s easy. Just combine 1 cup of all-purpose flour with 1½ teaspoons of baking powder and ½ teaspoon of salt. I needed 2½ cups self-rising flour, so I made 3 cups and used the extra ½ cup to flour the counter and baking sheet.

Spread flour on one dinner plate, beat eggs in a wide-mouthed bowl and spread panko on a second dinner plate. Set a third, empty dinner plate near the panko plate.

Dredge a fish fillet through the flour and knock off the excess, then dip it in the beaten egg. Hold it up to drain off excess egg, and place it on top of the breadcrumbs, pressing gently to make the crumbs adhere, turning to coat the other side. Lay the breaded fish fillet on the clean plate. Repeat with other fillets until the last plate contains four breaded fillets.

Preheat the oil at least ½ inch deep to 180 degrees, or until a lump of breadcrumbs sizzles, browns and rises to the top of the oil. Fry the fish in the oil 3 minutes or until light and golden, depending on the thickness of the fillets. Drain on paper towels.

Sprinkle with Maldon salt and serve immediately with lemon wedges and tartar sauce.— Adapted from www.maldonsalt.co.uk

Preheat oven to 400 F. Place half the smoked Maldon salt in a dish large enough to take the potatoes lying in one layer. Cover the salt with the potatoes and then cover the potatoes with the remaining salt, packing it down around them. Drizzle water liberally over the salt, and place the dish in the preheated oven.

Cook 45 minutes. Remove the dish and let it rest 10 minutes.Meanwhile, mix the butter in a bowl with remaining ingredients. Remove the potatoes and rub off the salt crust thoroughly using a cloth. Cut them in half, place in a serving dish, top with the butter mixture and serve immediately.— www.maldonsalt.co.uk

Heat the oven to 400 F. Grease and flour a heavy baking sheet.Sift the flour into a roomy baking bowl then add the butter, baking powder salt and sugar if using.Quickly rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Make a well in the center and using a dinner knife, stir in the beaten eggs and enough milk to make a soft, lightly sticky but pliable dough.

Turn the mixture onto a floured board and knead very lightly until just smooth.

Lightly roll out onto the prepared baking pan into a circle ¾-inch thick. Score into 8 triangles with a sharp knife.

Bake near the top of the hot oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack before serving with jam and clotted cream.— Jennie Geisler can be reached on Twitter: @ETNGeisler.

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